Astonishment

 "And the city had no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God was its radiance, and its true light was the Lamb. By that single illumination, the nations will be, and their kings will bring their worth into the heart of the great city through gates that will never close" Revelation 21:22-26.

In a field outside the Cornish town of Truro is a blood-red clay region where, on an Autumn evening back in 2001, my beloved late wife Kay taught me so much about the magnificence of light.

As a photographer, watching the radiance of that evening meant so much to her, and as I looked and listened, I began to understand why her passion was so important - light truly transformed what it touched by bringing a radiance that raised the subject to a new level of beauty and splendour.

That was a seminal moment for me in my now twenty year journey filling the shoes of my late wife's great passion, and it's lesson is vital to this amazing discovery I'm going to share here.

The passage above refers to the coming new city at the very centre of the redeemed creation. We all know the promise this holds, but what if I were to tell you that an absolutely amazing discovery of our times has shown us something about this city that we never expected?

In the verses prior to those just quoted (19-20), we're told that there are twelve foundation levels to the city itself, each one made of different layer of precious stones - jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, camelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst.

Have you ever wondered why these particular jewels are listed and some that we would probably have included, like diamonds or rubies, are not there?

We now have the answer... and it's something wonderful, to do with the radiance of pure light.

We have now discovered that when you pass such light through anisotropic gems (those listed as the foundations of the city), they radiate a full spectrum of rainbow colours, also emanating the most spectacular patterns.

When you pass that same light through Isotropic jewels - like diamonds - they become entirely colourless - the light turns entirely black.

All the stones used in the foundation of the golden city are anisotropic - they are going to display the most breathtaking colour and pattern displays you can imagine.

This glorious truth helps to exegete the verses I've placed above. This eternal city will indeed be a crown upon the good earth, where God's saving Lamb - Jesus our beloved - is delighted to share life with us forever.

What a wonder!

The very physical nature of the architecture is going to reflect and express the majesty of what is occurring between the people and their King.

It says so much about the good purposes of Him who loves us, and is bringing about the very best in respect to the nature of goodness and beauty into an eternal habitation of Himself and us.

Grasping the Nettle

 "And Paul said, 'I am not mad, but I am speaking truthfully and rationally". Acts 26:25.

In 2021, I had to make it clear at my office that there were certain 'requirements' that I would not be participating in, as I viewed them as contrary to my individual rights, especially when it came to my welfare, and the health of others.

In that same year, I had to leave the place of worship I had been attending for nearly a decade because they believed those same 'requirements' made it necessary to both close and then curtail the freedom of the believer to assemble and worship God.

Some eighteen months on, my concerns in respect to the dangers of all these 'requirements' have been realised. The social fabric of society as a whole has been rent asunder by the 'woke' agenda that has come to the fore during this period of imposed travail, and the misery that has been woven into the day to day reality of life as a result is palpable.

When the Apostle Paul stood by Agrippa and Festus to present his case for being a messenger of truth, he did not hold back in respect to why and how this was the imperative. He knew that his life belonged to another, and as a result, what happened to him and those fellow believers like him was not determined by the powers and authorities of his day - they were small in comparison to the Lord he now served.

Life teaches us that in spite of what is 'strong' right now (be it external dictates or mandates, or our own wayward desires), there are far greater powers at work that can never be overtaken by our small ambitions, however much power we believe ourselves to hold.

In the Autumn of 1940, Hitler's vast war machine turned it's attention to the shores of England, and the impressive might of the Luftwaffe pounded the airfields of the RAF to win control of the skies to allow Operation Sea Lion (the invasion of the country) to occur. Air Marshall Dowding, who "Trusted in God and prayed for Radar", knew that if this relentless campaign continued, his loss of pilots and aircraft would signal the end, and as had happened on the beaches of Dunkirk, only a miracle would change things.

After a small bombing raid by the British on Berlin, the miracle came.

Hitler ordered the carpet bombing of London, and on the knife-edge of defeat, the airfields gained the reprieve they needed. The struggle that followed was hard, but that one change by the German war machine altered the entire course of the struggle over Europe.

The small things we do now may not appear to make much of an impression, but when we choose, like Paul, to put our faith in God and keep our wits about us in respect to what we say and and do, the integrity of what this conveys will speak.

We are called to truth concerning this present moment, and we must be those who affirm this, however hard this may prove to be.

Jesus has promised to be with us in such hard times - to aid us and go with us through these days, so let us do what is necessary, even when we feel alone or afraid.

Unmerited

 "For by Grace you are saved - not of yourself. It is the gift of God". Ephesians 2:8.

I am especially thankful to Jason Micheli for these wonderful thoughts.

The Book of Galatians is proof that despite what we may sing on Sundays, we're addicted to bad news.

Like so many of us, there we read of those who thought they'd advanced to somewhere 'beyond' the simplicity and vitality of the saving Gospel.

In so doing, they had, in effect, abandoned God's actual rescue and reverted back to confidence in the rigours of the Law.

Paul seeks to remind them that there are only two options - rescue by Christ alone, or drowning in the supposed 'merits' of our misguided (and over-bloated) confidence in our (dingy) piety.

There is actually no middle-ground between 'Christ has done everything for you' and 'this is what you must do... perfectly'.

The easiest way to invalidate the Gospel is to try and add to it (and thereby, subtract from its absolute and total sufficiency).

We do this continually by adding on modifiers - progressive spirituality, moral value progress, whole life piety... the 'being all you should be' approach to godliness.

The message of the Gospel is you don't need to do anything beyond seeing what has already been done by God in Jesus. You are then already buried into Christ's death and raised into His resurrection - that is your sure and certain guarantee of belonging to another, forever.

Christ died for all your sins. He is your holiness, righteousness and sanctification. Holiness, now, is about resting in that truth - trusting, relaxing in those astonishing promises.

The truth of this, and this alone, is the good news.

The opposite, then, of sin, is confidence in someone other than us -

Jesus Christ, The Saviour!

There's a Reason

"Men need only to acquire what the incarnate Son possesses to be delivered from their bondage and return to the wholeness of creation, and it was precisely to bestow the life which He Himself possessed that Christ was born into the world".

Man and the Incarnation by Gustav Wingren (expounding Irenaeus).

Sometimes, it's useful to remind ourselves what is behind where we state things count (as I've done this month). In a recent video on YT, Dr Jordan Cooper sought to underline the real significance of essential Christianity regarding Soteriology (the work of Salvation) and Christology (the nature of Christ's incarnation) by highlighting the key theme and objective of these truths - God is for us in this vital revelation. That's what Jesus Himself is affirming in His statements to Nicodemus (John 3:16,17) and Paul proclaims when he states that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).

God, in both nature and intention, is truly and thereby fully revealed in the flesh and life of His beloved Son (John 1:1-18, especially verse 17). We now draw near to God because of His providing the means whereby we are brought in (faith and baptism. Romans chapters 3-6) and sustained (the supper - 1 Corinthians 10:16) by the very real closeness of Christ Himself, who has ascended bodily to the Father, and the thereby 'filled all things with Himself" (Ephesians 1:23).

The message is vitally clear. The divine and human natures of Christ are at the very centre of God's saving work and are now at the very heart of all that is being made new in heaven and earth (Revelation 5:5-14), so our life and faith revolve around this touchstone - this one wondrous foundation.

"Religion" (godliness misconstrued to be in our impoverished merits, rather than purely sourced and sustained in Christ - Colossians 2:9-14) wants to sever us from this profound and astonishing splendour. Error acts in the same fashion as the beguiler in Eden, expelling us from the genuine goodness of what God has done, hence Paul's clear warning to us: "but I am fearful, that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, you will be lead astray from genuine devotion to Christ "(via 'another' Jesus. 2 Corinthians 11:3).

True Godliness is the Gospel of full redemption (1 Corinthians 15). If it were anything 'other' (less) than this, then then procuring of what had fallen (us) would not have been achieved by Incarnation and Propitiation. We are not destined to become holy 'souls', inhabiting a disembodied domain, but resurrected, physical creatures forever.

When we begin to allow these radiant truths to take their place in our lives, then, we begin to see that, aside from meeting God in His gracious gifts (word and sacrament), our "neighbour is the holiest thing presented to our senses" (Lewis - The Weight of Glory), because there, we may truly see the truly glorified (Our Saviour) glorifying Himself amidst that which has been entirely taken up and loved exclusively by Him.

This is the true splendour of life now, and all that is to come!

Looking in all the wrong places.

 "Do not hinder or prevent the way forward of each other". Romans 14:13.

"What Christianity promises is not the removal of evil from this world, but the taking of this twisted estate into the mystery of Christ's work in His offering in death and resurrection". Robert Farrar Capon.

I've had some interesting moments this week as a result of my last entry here.

Let me share a few.

First, there was a discussion I came across on the Roman Catholic 'Pints with Aquinas' website, where the Orthodox artist/Iconographer Jonathan Pageau seeks to argue that nudity in Christian art is inherently a problem, because, in his opinion, such an estate is only meant to be shared in the marriage union (the bedroom) and is troublesome elsewhere. His reasons for saying this are interesting - what was 'good' about Roman art was apparently incorporated into the realm of iconography by the church (the use of Roman attire and stature) whilst what was bad was discarded (human sexuality, expressed in the naked form). This slight of hand omits the obvious - Christianity, in this process, adopted what it believed it could "baptise" as honourable, but along with that would come the capacity to 'raise' all other beliefs and practices whilst actually muting the vital truths of the Apostles (hence, the need for the Reformation). This approach also negates the whole scope of the early church's attitude to the body which I touched on last time.

As Phillip Johnson notes in his chapter on the body in his work (Six Modern Myths), these attitudes owe far more to Greek thinking (dualism) than the actual theology of Paul and his associates in the first century.

Next, there was another exposition which sought to set the value of nudity in art in the context of God's acceptability of nakedness within marriage, at least recognising that the estate itself was good, if somewhat limiting its realm. Other popular Christian works on this matter (Lewes Smedes "Sex for Christians", for example), seek to set similar 'wholesome' boundaries.

The problem with all of these approaches is that they seeks to apply the wrong lessons to the issue at hand.

In his brilliant essay on Equality, C S Lewis notes that the problem with Naturism (communal nakedness as a way of life) isn't the disrobing of the body, but the pernicious belief that by merely doing so, we can all live in harmony and all would be well. This, he notes, is just as bad as adopting National Socialism as a good idea. So much, then, for living entirely without clothes, but he doesn't leave it there. We all know, he continues, deeply, that there is a yearning to be truly naked - truly free, and that desire is a good and proper thing.

It's good because it was right in Eden.

It's good because the church lived and practiced a faith in Christ that truly understood the worth and value of the body, unclothed and clothed.

It's good because nakedness in art and life is meant to express something wholesome and holy - an expression of what God intended.

It is in the Creational and Redemptive crux of God's reconciling work in Christ, as Irenaeus showed, that we find the vital and valid source of our bodily identity.

That is really where we need to "draw the waters" from on such a subject!

It's time we genuinely applied Paul's sage counsel in Romans 14 and allow genuine growth in this respect, rather than hinder the faith and life of others. That is what Christ actually desires.

And...?

 "Neither I, nor any like me, can attain the wisdom of Paul, who, whilst among you, accurately and ardently taught the word of truth, continuing to do so in the epistle he then wrote to you, by which you may continue to edify yourselves in the faith that this has brought to you, which nurtures us all, granting us a true hope in the love of God through Christ, evidenced in our lives toward our neighbours. For when we become filled by this, we can fulfil what is required by knowing Him who is love and far from sin".  Polycarp's letter to the Phillippian church.

They kept on coming this month... the questions.

Should Christians take their kids out on Halloween for neighbourhood treats, and if they do, what should they do about all the 'negative' stuff? Should Christian women attend a mixed gym, and if they do, what should they be wearing - oh, come to think of it, should believers be going to a gym at all (never mind a bar or a leisure centre)?

You get the idea.

It's useful at such moments to think back to the early days of the church, when men like Polycarp were earnestly serving the likes of John and Paul.

He (Polycarp) relates in one of his writings how there was an occasion when he and John were enjoying a visit to a Roman bath house in Ephesus (let that sink in), but it was cut short by the fact that a man named Cerinthius - a vocal opponent of all John taught - was also present, so the two of them made a hasty departure.

It's moments like these that should make us pause.

Peter had no issue fishing "naked" (John 21:7) amongst his brethren when Jesus tells Him to cast his nets once again - it would have been quite a common thing in that region (which makes you think about Jesus' words afresh in Luke 6:29! - then look at Matthew 6:25-29). Scripture had no reservation about using the example of the gymnast (naked athlete) to speak of our running as believers in our life of faith (Hebrews 12:1).

It's with these things in mind we need to think about the early church and how it viewed the value and place of the body, and what was good when it comes to our employment and enjoyment of this in respect to a meaningful life.

We know from Tertullian in the 2nd century that in very many ways, Christians were normal citizens of Roman towns and cities, and this clearly included using the Roman baths (the leisure centres of their day) for bathing and relaxation (inscriptions have been found which show that some of these facilities were actually employed for baptisms). The Christian writer Hipploytius refers in his writings to a liturgy for such baptism which clearly involved nudity (as well as infant baptism), women having to remove any adornments from their hair first. In such ceremonies, re-clothing upon coming from the waters symbolised the renewal of becoming part of the family of God's church.

In his extensive study of the subject, Roy Bowen Ward notes how mixed baths were common in the empire 'Pre-Hadrian' (76-138 AD), and in many places these were the key facilities for normal bathing and cleansing, so would have been viewed as commonplace as our sporting and health centres today.

I touch on all of this here purely to raise the way we need to look at many of these issues the way that would have been done in the days of the Apostles themselves:

"For it has seemed to good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements - that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality. If you keep these, you do well" (Acts 15:28 &29).

That's why in early Christianity, nudity and all, was fine.

It says we have a lot to learn.

Now Arriving

 As they say in the US,  "Word".

Healing the deepest wound of all

"Having set harsh men over them, they oppressed them continually with arduous burdens".

Exodus 1:11.

So I watched part of an interview this week between the actor Matthew Mc Conaughey and Psychologist Jordan Peterson. The issue was how the actor found a way past his own issues (agnosticism), by believing God had told him to get past his theological and practical complacency by 'taking the wheel' (responsibility) and getting on with what was necessary.

I also watched another piece - an examination of Peterson's discussion with Joe Rogan on the serpent in the wilderness incident (Numbers 21), which Christ refers to in respect to His own crucifixion (John 3:14).

Both of these pieces are seeking to identify 'truth' derived from Biblical materials and concepts - the question is what are the 'liberating' concepts identified, and are they what really counts in respect to our standing before God.

In the first video, for example, Mc Conaughey states that his 'awakening' broke him away from that God was someone who continually forgives to a being who is clearly requiring much more from him. Peterson responds to this by saying that it's no mistake that Christ is 'finally' viewed (in the book of Revelation) as a judge, not as a redeemer, and that such a process of awareness is what really counts for us.

Peterson takes a similar route with the wilderness incident, saying what this and Christ's crucifixion really point us to is confronting our deepest fears and reconciling ourselves to these to bring about a necessary healing. This, notes Steve Turley, is totally in line with the 'orthodox traditions' of Christian spirituality.

So let's summarise what these materials are saying.

God's forgiveness really doesn't bring about too much unless you're prepared to 'get real' in respect to taking charge of yourself. You have to see God as, principally, judge, who is continually requiring improvement out of you (or your church community) if you want to stay up with Him, and real growth takes place when God takes you to the point of your deepest fears and gets you to overcome them.

Goodness.

As I looked at what had been laid out here, a couple of things readily came to mind.

1. These guys have clearly never really wrestled with the writings of the Apostle Paul on the actual nature of grace and faith, as unpacked especially in the book of Romans, because of the saving work of Jesus Christ and

2. If they think these approaches are sound, then they need to spend some time under the rigour of a system like the one Martin Luther endured as an Augustinian monk to understand where such total adherence to such approaches really leave us.

God's answer to our deepest trouble - sin - is not cheap or easy - it costs far, far more than we can afford or resource from ourselves, so if we think we're making some grade, we are far more lost than we realise.

The answers these presentations provide were all in play in the medieval religious system, and they all failed, miserably, once the delusion of thinking we make the difference was unmasked - we don't. Christ does.

The solution we provide to our day has to be far deeper and substantial than mind games and religious mysticism. Christ alone is the blood and bone of God's redemptive work in creation - a substantial cosmos made far more real by the Lamb slain.

That is the prize worth all - the treasure so freely given.